


Can You Hear Me?

by Yacer_Sho



Category: Horizon: Zero Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: Crying, Education, F/F, Old Ones, Post-Apocalypse, Robots, Sad with a Happy Ending, Safe Haven, Secret Messages, Short One Shot, hologram
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-17
Updated: 2020-04-17
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:20:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23242408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yacer_Sho/pseuds/Yacer_Sho
Summary: In which Aloy stumbles upon yet another remnant of The Old Ones and discovers an audio belonging to an eighteen year old girl, who hopes she can educate the future humans about what happened in the past. Aloy tries to uncover her story, and ends up learning more than she bargained for.
Relationships: Aloy (Horizon: Zero Dawn)/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 31





	Can You Hear Me?

The rusting metal beneath her feet did all but faze Aloy as she continued her trek through yet another ruin of the Old Ones. There was nothing particularly special about this place, especially since this bunker seemed like it had been abandoned long before the collapse of humanity. Aside from the occasional loot Aloy found in a chest that was aging beyond repair, as well as lore she can gather about the past via text and audio data-points scattered around this vast stretch of land, there was really nothing too interesting that could catch a good price with merchants.

A few of the decaying technological equipment displayed a glitched pink screen, that to this day was going to be indecipherable, so Aloy continued her exploration with an uneasy feeling in her gut. This place used to be a safe haven to people attempting to hide from machines, and never came back out. 

To be perfectly honest with herself though, the ruins of the Old Ones give Aloy the creeps. And of course, the mummified remains of unknown inhabitants didn't help Aloy feel any better. Some were lying on beds, curled into the fetal position in a last ditch attempt to console themselves in death, while others chose the "easy" way out, although Aloy didn't want to think about how or why they died. Their remains were to be untouched, especially if Aloy's Focus had no information to display about who they were.

"All I got to do is look around for some loot and information about the past, and then I'm out of here. I apologize in advance for disturbing your... rest." She said, although Aloy wasn't entirely certain if she was talking to their remains, or to herself to calm down.

Aloy certainly wasn't fearless when it came to death, after all, it unnerved her to think that these corpses used to be living, breathing people with thoughts and emotions. And now here they were, trapped at the bottom of a ruin with nothing to show for it.

Everything about these underground living spaces are unnatural, like they were forcibly carved out of the ground in some fatal attempt to preserve what was left of the human population. The overgrown greenery was being kept alive by a waterfall that Aloy could hear far off into the distance, so she knew that if she needed a way to escape, she would have clean water to drink just before she left.

As Aloy continued exploring, she interacted with her Focus to search for more chests that could have valuable loot. The Focus showed Aloy that there was a chest in a room nearby, and seemed to have rare items hidden inside, such as relics and valuables that could catch Aloy a nice price. Smiling to herself, Aloy turned off the Focus and began walking into the room without any hesitation to grab whatever was inside that chest. 

After all, if it meant getting a new, more powerful bow, Aloy would take the opportunity to get rich in a heartbeat. But as she entered the room, Aloy just... stopped. Her braided hair fell at her shoulders as she came to a sudden halt, and her chest rose and fell slowly as she stared at the corpse of what looked to be a teenage girl all alone in a corner, clutching one of the relics to her chest. It wasn't something that looked all that interesting up close, but Aloy knew it must have had sentimental value at one point...

...But she didn't have a clue as to what this object was. It looked to be some kind of necklace, but the chain was almost molded into the corpse's hand, so there was no way Aloy was going to touch it and disturb their final resting place.

Shrugging, Aloy squatted down to search through the chest for valuables, which were somehow still in almost perfect condition to this day. "Whoa... Look at all this stuff." Pleased with herself, Aloy rose to a stand and prepared to leave, when she noticed a holographic data-point, containing valuable information about the past. 

"Oh. She must have left a message, huh. I wonder what she must have been talking about." Aloy knew she had time to play the hologram, so she turned it on and began to play it. The title of the holographic data was _A Lesson on the Past, For the People of the Future._

A woman appeared, barely tall enough to reach Aloy's shoulders, with jet black hair that fell at her shoulders, and bangs covering the entirety of her forehead. Her shiny emerald eyes were wide in excitement, almost as if she had no idea of the horrors that were yet to come. Her skin was tanned, but from being underground for so long, her skin was beginning to look a bit pale from the lack of sunlight. Her freckles moved as she licked her lips to prepare her speech, which were located on the bridge of her nose and scattered under her eyes. Her clothes, however, were nothing more than a long sleeved, light blue shirt and pants, including white shoes.

Aloy actually found her quite attractive, but it took everything in her power not to look over at her mummified remains which were sitting in the corner. Oddly enough, the necklace was around her neck instead of in her hand, so that piece of jewelry held some kind of great importance to her that Aloy found tragic. The black haired girl cleared her throat and stared at Aloy, or whoever was meant to find this holographic data-point, and began to speak.

"Hello, hello? Can you hear me? Is the microphone working?"

Despite the age of the data-point, the audio was still clear enough for Aloy to hear, although there was the occasional glitch now and then as she spoke.

"My name is Josie Anderson, and I am an 18 year old girl from the long forgotten 21st century, and it is my honor to be standing before the future inhabitants of this incredible world." Josie looks to the ground and chuckles a little, almost as if she's nervous. She'll never be able to have a normal conversation with Aloy, but at least Aloy can be taught about the past. "Might I ask your name? Whoever you are?"

Aloy sighs and goes along with whatever game Josie is trying to play. Unfortunately, Josie looks slightly awkward just standing there with a hopeful look in her eyes, as if she expects someone from the future to excitedly tell her their name, even if she'll never know it.

"My name is Aloy, and I'm pretty skillful with a bow, among other things. Uh, good to meet you, Josie. Now, tell me what your world was like." She demands, but the holographic girl continues to stand there with a blank look in her eyes, and a smile on her face, as if hoping to bide a little more time just in case the person is still speaking to her. 

Josie giggles and blinks after a few more seconds, then nods. "That sounds like an amazing name! You must be a very interesting person, but for now I would like to educate you on what happened in the past. Now, I'm not going to go into too much detail about the... machine incident, because let's face it, I'm sure you don't want to hear about what you already know. Machines go rogue and start killing off the human race..."

Aloy nods and laughs a little at Josie's comment. "Yeah, cause who hasn't heard about machine's trying to kill us."

"Right, uh..." Josie clears her throat and begins thinking about what to say. "As you can see, this is my living quarters. I sleep here, I work here, I... Well, I _live_ here, along with my other government-assigned roommates. Wait, you probably don't know what a government is. Do you know what I'm talking about? They control the people... in states and stuff. Shit, you probably don't know what a state is either. N-Nevermind, how about I just show you around my room? And then I can tell you more about myself." 

Aloy chortled and shook her head. "Sounds fun, Josie." 

Josie began to walk around the room after clearing her throat, and Aloy followed close behind, while being extremely careful not to accidentally make eye-contact with her dead body. Josie and Aloy's eyes locked together as Josie pointed towards a non-functional screen that seemed to be her pride and joy. Her holographic self turned on the device as if expecting Aloy to see what was on the screen, but in real life, the device was too overgrown with foliage to even be recognizable as a technological device.

"This is my holographic computer! Luckily for all of us in this bunker, we have access to news reports, games, lessons, and photos and videos of our world before the collapse of humanity. Unfortunately, I never got to graduate high school, so this is what we've been using in some half-ass attempt to make us learn. Oh, but my friend in the room next door managed to hack this computer and gain access to files we used to have back home of our families and friends, so we have memories of them while they're fighting in the war." Josie became quiet after mentioning her loved ones, which made Aloy's eyes soften.

Aloy reached out an arm to console Josie, who continued to stare at the computer, which most likely had a "file" of her loved ones. Josie had no idea she was going to die all alone in her room at the bottom of a bunker, and here she was, talking to herself all alone in the middle of a room.

"Hey, Josie, you don't have to worry about it-" 

"Forgive me." Josie choked in a sob as she passed through Aloy's body, scaring Aloy half to death. The light passing through her had no feeling whatsoever, but the fact that a woman managed to go through her body like that scared her enough to make her freeze in place.

Josie wasn't alive anymore, that was obvious, but the fact that every it took every ounce of her grief within her to cry out, "I have to teach the people of the future that I existed! No amount of history lessons are going to tell you that I was here! My friends and my family will be of no importance to you, but I want you to know that _I_ existed. I'm here, right in front of you, begging you to remember me! Be proud that you're still alive, because I'm not going to have that chance. Those machines took _everything_ from us." 

Aloy turned around and sighed nervously as Josie tried to calm herself down by gripping her necklace with her dominant hand. Her face became red and puffy from holding in her tears, but once her lip began to quiver that was when Aloy knew she couldn't keep her anger and sadness hidden anymore. Josie unclasped the silver necklace and held it in her hands with narrowed eyes as tears streamed down her face. 

Much to Aloy's surprise, the necklace opened and Josie sighed longingly as she showed Aloy what was inside. One was of Josie and two girls on one side, whereas Josie was with an older woman and an older man on the other. Josie sniffled and looked up at what was supposed to be the person of the future, and Aloy stared back. "How does that work? Who are they?"

"I'm pretty sure you don't know what this is. It's a... It's a locket. It's a special kind of necklace that allows you to put pictures of people that you cherish most inside of, so that when you open it, you know that even though they're not with you, they're with you in spirit. But I think you want to know who they are, huh? These two girls are my very best friends. Diana and Rachel... t-they died after their bunker was..." Josie began to choke up again, and stopped herself from speaking.

Aloy tried to wrap an arm around her shoulders in condolences to their passing, and Josie continued, "Those two are my parents. Beth is my mom, and Orion is my dad, and as of current they're helping with the Zero Dawn project designed by Elisabet Sobeck... I really hope they're alright, wherever they are. I'm just... I'm tired of being alone."

"Your parents are heroes, you know that? Project Zero Dawn works, because I'm right here with you." Aloy tried to say, even if Josie wouldn't be able to hear. "And your friends are still with you in spirit, right? You're not entirely alone, right? I'm here with you, ."

Josie closed her eyes and sighed. "Thank you for taking the time out of your day to listen to me. This is Josie Anderson, saying goodbye to the people of the future. I hope, somehow, that I provided you a glimpse into the past. And if you find me, take whatever you need to survive. You certainly need it more than I do." 

Josie's hologram finally disappeared, and Aloy frowned once she realized that she was alone at the bottom of a bunker once again. 

Her mind wandered Rost, her guardian and companion, who taught her everything she needed to know about her world and its treasures. Rost taught her lessons about life, and how she should act around death. "Death is just something that happens. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't ignore it."

As of right now, Aloy couldn't move. Those artifacts belonging to Josie were supposed to be important to her, and yet, she wants Aloy to take them. Or, whoever just happened to stumble upon these ruins. With a heavy heart, Aloy left the room, and made sure to buy herself a fancy new bow; without selling Josie's artifacts. 


End file.
